My Top 25

The first week of conference play for most teams meant a lot of upsets, and a lot of change in the order, if not a lot of change in the teams.
Most notable, Pitt is the new No. 1 in my poll after North Carolina’s home loss Sunday; Gonzaga is out after losing its fourth game of the season; and Cal is in after sweeping the Arizona schools. I kept Arizona State in the poll, however, and now have three Pac-10 teams for the first time in a while.
Cal is 13-2 with its only losses at Missouri and at a neutral site to Florida State, each teams also having good seasons (and teams I have also thought about ranking, having had Missouri in the poll a few weeks before its recent loss to Illinois).
Some of you asked me about Washington. I suspect the Huskies might get a few votes. I ultimately decided to wait another week. If the Huskies sweep this weekend, they’ll be a serious consideration, as they would have obviously just beaten Cal. If the Huskies have one thing holding them back from being ranked right now it’s the lack of a real marquee win — nice as the win over WSU was, it’s obvious the Cougars are not the team they were the last few years; and while Oklahoma State is 10-3, the Cowboys haven’t beaten anyone of note.
Here are my complete rankings this week:
1, Pitt
2, Duke
3, Wake Forest
4, North Carolina
5, Connecticut
6, Oklahoma
7, Michigan State
8, Texas
9, UCLA
10, Syracuse
11, Georgetown
12, Minnesota
13, Purdue
14, Clemson
15, Notre Dame
16, Marquette
17, Cal
18, Villanova
19, Louisville
20, Butler
21, Dayton
22, Arizona State
23, Xavier
24, Tennessee
25, Baylor